Learning Support

Purpose and Aims

Purpose

For pupils to have full access to the curriculum regardless of any barriers to their learning. To support this, the school have invested in the Pebbles scheme or work which has been developed as a supplement to the Chris Quigley curriculum.  Some pupils need to focus on the very small steps that will help them along the way in their learning journey. That’s the idea of Pebbles. It is a curriculum for pupils who are not ready to work on the milestones from our Essentials Curriculum yet is designed for pupils in mainstream schools who have been identified as needing this highly differentiated pathway in order to secure the essential skills in:

• Reading
• Writing
• Communication
• Maths
• Science

Pupils who benefit from it most are those with moderate learning difficulties and who have significant gaps in their knowledge and skills compared to other pupils in the same year group.

Provision

Every subject comes with support materials linking the curriculum to both Early Years and P scales to support pupils who are not ready for Milestone 1. Pebbles was written as a ‘catch up’ programme for pupils who are not milestone ready.  By solely focusing on Pebbles, pupils over learn the key things they need to enable them to access the milestones within the Essentials Curriculum.

As a ‘catch up’ programme, it will need to be delivered separate to the Essentials Curriculum and therefore the TA, INCO is likely to be delivering outside the classroom.  There is flexibility for making the curriculum completely tailored to the learners needs in that a pupil could be on the Pebbles programme for Writing but Essentials for the other areas of the curriculum. It can be completely personalised to each individual.

Progression and Assessment

Assessment and Reporting

Pebbles are the stepping stones needed to get to Milestone 1 from the Essentials Curriculum. There are 3 pebbles for children to progress until they reach Milestone 1.

Staff begin their assessment by looking at the Milestone 1 descriptors for the curriculum area and if a child is not achieving these, they may move to the Pebbles until an appropriate ‘best fit’ level for the child is found. Each Pebble has a clear set of descriptors. A tracking sheet has been devised which shows progression between the Pebbles as a pupil works towards a milestone.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Improvement

The INCO and teacher will have discussions in monitoring pupil’s outcomes from the Pebbles programme.  There is a tracking system within the programme that differs to Essentials tracking. Pebbles tracks pupils fluency rather than cognitive understanding of Basic, Advancing and Deep. The Year Group Report shows a pupil’s progress throughout the year and their forecast for the end of the Milestone. The Year Group Report is split into a Pebbles row and an Essentials row, so that if a pupil progresses from the Pebbles Curriculum to the Essentials Curriculum, it is visible.